When Trucks Fly

Here's your nightly math! Just 5 quick minutes of number fun for kids and parents at home. Read a cool fun fact, followed by math riddles at different levels so everyone can jump in. Your kids will love you for it.

When Trucks Fly

When a daredevil rides a bike or a skateboard off a big ramp high into the air, that’s already crazy. It’s even crazier when people drive a racecar off a ramp. So imagine doing a jump like that in a huge truck! Driver Gregg Godfrey holds the world record for the longest jump by a truck, 166 feet. He shot off the ramp at 70 miles an hour, and landed without the truck breaking apart, though it did spin while skidding to a stop. Gregg actually beat an earlier record of 62 feet, which means he’s not the only person crazy enough to try this.

Wee ones: What shape is a truck tire?

Little kids: Which has more wheels, this 10-wheel truck or an 18-wheeler? Bonus: How many more wheels does the 18-wheeler have?

Big kids: If you have some mix of 10-wheelers and 18-wheelers with 48 wheels in total, how many of each size truck must you have? Bonus: A truck cab like that weighs about 20,000 pounds. How many 4,000-lb cars would have to stack up to match that?

Answers:Wee ones: A circle.

Little kids: An 18-wheeler. Bonus: 8 more wheels.

Big kids: 1 18-wheeler and 3 10-wheelers. Bonus: 5 cars.

About the Author

Laura Bilodeau Overdeck is founder and president of Bedtime Math Foundation. Her goal is to make math as playful for kids as it was for her when she was a child. Her mom had Laura baking before she could walk, and her dad had her using power tools at a very unsafe age, measuring lengths, widths and angles in the process. Armed with this early love of numbers, Laura went on to get a BA in astrophysics from Princeton University, and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business; she continues to star-gaze today. Laura’s other interests include her three lively children, chocolate, extreme vehicles, and Lego Mindstorms.